The Cape Kumukahi Light is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

Kapoho, Hawaii Kapoho, Hawaii, is a now-uninhabited unincorporated area in Puna district, Hawaii County, Hawaii, US, located near the eastern tip of the island of Hawaii, in the easternmost subaerial end of the graben overlying Kīlauea's east rift zone. Or ...

at the easternmost point of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. It is best known for its survival of an eruption of Kilauea in 1960.

History

Requests for a lighthouse on the cape, the easternmost point of the island chain, began in 1905. The lighthouse board reasoned that a light at the site would assist in

landfall Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...

for ships approaching from

Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

and the newly opened

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

. Nonetheless, these requests were not heeded until 1928, when a wooden tower was erected, with an automatic acetylene beacon. In 1933-1934 a more substantial station was constructed. This consisted of a pair of wooden keeper's houses and a steel tower, the latter resting on a unique foundation consisting of two stacked concrete blocks with a layer of sand in between, a scheme intended to insulate the tower from the many minor earthquakes in the area. The light itself was upgraded to a rotating aerobeacon. Cape Kumukahi lies at the end of the east

rift zone A rift zone is a feature of some volcanoes, especially shield volcanoes, in which a set of linear cracks (or rifts) develops in a volcanic edifice, typically forming into two or three well-defined regions along the flanks of the vent. Believed ...

of the slopes of Kilauea, and the light was threatened several times by eruptions. The most serious threat came from the 1960 eruption which destroyed the town of Kapoho; lava flows continued downslope toward the light, and destroyed the keepers' houses and an orchard which Joe Pestrella, who had been keeper there since 1938, had planted by the light station; but when the lava reached the tower, it split into two streams and flowed into the sea to either side, sparing the structure. After the eruption ceased, a new electric line was run to the light and it was automated, and Pestrella was transferred to Makapuu Point Light, where he remained until he retired in 1963, the last civilian keeper in the islands. Pestrella had previously been awarded "Civil Servant of the Year" in 1956 for staying at his post during an eruption the year before. The light continues in automated operation. In addition,

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

maintains a sampling facility for the Global Monitoring Division of the

Earth System Research Laboratories The Earth System Research Laboratories (ESRL) is an alliance of four NOAA scientific labs, all located in the David Skaggs Research Center on the Department of Commerce campus in Boulder, Colorado. Organized under NOAA's Office of Oceanic and At ...

on the grounds of the light, as the trade winds bring fresh oceanic air to the site at all times.

References

External links

* {{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1929 Lighthouses completed in 1934 Lighthouses in Hawaii Buildings and structures in Hawaii County, Hawaii 1929 establishments in Hawaii

History

See also

References

External links